Eucamerotus
| Eucamerotus Temporal range: Lower Cretaceous
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| Family: | unknown
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| Genus: | Eucamerotus Hulke, 1871
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| Species: | E. foxi Blows, 1995
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Eucamerotus (meaning "well-chambered" in reference to the hollows of the vertebrae) was a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Barremian-age Lower Cretaceous Wessex Formation (Wealden) of the Isle of Wight, England. It is known from vertebral remains, and a partial skeleton has been referred, although this has not been accepted. It is one of several sauropods that is part of the complicated Ornithopsis-Pelorosaurus taxonomic tangle of fragmentary Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous-age European sauropods.
History and Taxonomy
John Hulke named the genus from several partial dorsal vertebrae found by William D. Fox near Brighstone Bay: BMNH R2522 (a neural arch), and BMNH R89 (two dorsals), BMNH R90 (two dorsal vertebrae), and BMNH R2524 (a dorsal from a juvenile).[1][2] He did not provide it with a species name nor select a holotype, and within a few years thought that it was the same as Ornithopsis hulkei.[3] Other authors preferred Pelorosaurus as a synonym.[4][5][6]
William T. Blows resurrected the genus in 1995 as a valid brachiosaurid, added the specific name foxi, selected BMNH R2522 as the type specimen, designated the other finds as paratypes and referred additional vertebrae and partial skeleton MIWG-BP001 to it.[7] This last point has not been generally accepted;[2][8] unfortunately, this skeleton has never been officially described.
Naish and Martill (2001) suggested Eucamerotus was a dubious brachiosaurid, and did not find Blows' characters convincing.[2] Upchurch et al. (2004) considered it to be a dubious sauropod.[8] Santucci and Bertini (2005), however, suggested it was a titanosaurian.[9] Darren Naish, as of July 2006, considered it to be a brachiosaurid [1].
Paleobiology
The vertebrae are around twenty centimetres long. If a brachiosaurid, Eucamerotus may have been around 15 m (49.2 ft) long,[2] small for a sauropod. As any kind of sauropod, it would have been a quadrupedal herbivore.[8]
References
- ^ Hulke, J. W. (1872). "Appendix to a "Note on a new and undescribed Wealden Vertebra," read 9th February 1870, and published in the Quarterly Journal for August in the same year". Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society. 28: 36. doi:10.1144/GSL.JGS.1872.028.01-02.15.
- ^ a b c d Naish, D., and Martill, D.M. (2001). Saurischian dinosaurs 1: Sauropods. In: Martill, D.M., and Naish, D. (eds.). Dinosaurs of the Isle of Wight. The Palaeontological Association:London 185-241. ISBN 0-901702-72-2
- ^ Hulke, J. W. (1879). "Note (3rd) on (Eucamerotus, Hulke) Ornithopsis, H. G. Seeley, = Bothriospondylus magnus, Owen, = Chondrosteosaurus magnus, Owen". Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society. 35: 752–762. doi:10.1144/GSL.JGS.1879.035.01-04.55.
- ^ von Huene, F. (1909). Skizze zu einer Systematik und Stammesgeschichte der Dinosaurier. Centralblatt für Mineralogie, Geologie und Paläontologie 1909:12-22. [German]
- ^ Romer, A.S. (1956). Osteology of the Reptiles. University of Chicago Press:Chicago 1-772. ISBN 0-89464-985-X
- ^ Steel, R. (1970). Part 14. Saurischia. Handbuch der Paläoherpetologie/Encyclopedia of Paleoherpetology. Part 14. Gustav Fischer Verlag:Stuttgart p. 1-87.
- ^ Blows, W.T. (1995). "The Early Cretaceous brachiosaurid dinosaurs Ornithopsis and Eucamerotus from the Isle of Wight, England" (PDF). Palaeontology. 38 (1): 187–197.
- ^ a b c Upchurch, P.M., Barrett, P.M., and Dodson, P. (2004). Sauropoda. In: Weishampel, D.B., Dodson, P., and Osmólska, H. (eds.). The Dinosauria (2nd edition). University of California Press:Berkeley 259-322. ISBN 0-520-24209-2
- ^ Santucci, R.M., and Bertini, R.J. (2005). On the phylogenetic relationships of Eucamerotus foxi (Sauropoda, Saurischia), from Wessex Formation, Lower Cretaceous, England (UK). In: Kellner, A.W.A., Henriques, D.D.R., and Rodrigues, T. (eds.). II Congresso Latino-Americano de Paleontologia de Vertebrados, Boletim de Resumos. Museum Nacional/UFRJ:Rio de Janeiro, 242-243.
- Upchurch, P., Mannion, P. D. & Barrett, P. M. 2011. Sauropod dinosaurs. In Batten, D. J. (ed.) English Wealden Fossils. The Palaeontological Association (London), pp. 476-525.
